SKOVAGALIU, LITHUANIA… NOVEMBER 1943 Lea Port and Samuel Ingel were members of a resistance group in the Kovno ghetto. They escaped the ghetto and walked more then 100 kilometers towards the village of Simnas. There they met Semonas Tamulinas, a communist who had been hiding from the Germans for three years. He said that since Lea did not look Jewish she could pass as a Christian and his sister, Elena Ivanauskai, would take her into her home. Lea lived with Elena and Petras Ivanauskai and their two children, Giedrute and Gintautas. At first Elena did not know that Lea was Jewish, but once she found out she agreed to keep hidding her. As the weather became colder Lea asked Elena if Samuel could hid in their barn. Elena agreed to help Samuel too. Lea and Samuel stayed with the Ivanauskai family until the area was liberated by the Soviet army in August 1944. In 2006 the JFR reunited Lea with Giedrute.

To read more about Giedrute and Gintautas Ivanauskai click here.

Read more at: https://jfr.org/video-library/reunion-2006/